| “ | Love is a lie. It is a trick played by the cruel on the foolish and the weak, poisoning your mind. Never let it render you frail of mind or will because in my kingdom there is but one law - do not love! It's a sin and I'll not forgive it. | „ |
| ~ Ice Queen Freya |
| “ | How lucky you are. | „ |
| ~ Freya's last words before she succumbs to her wounds |
Freya is the secondary antagonist of the 2016 film The Huntsman: Winter's War. She is the younger sister of Queen Ravenna and Finn.
She was portrayed by Emily Blunt in her first villainous role, who later did the voice of Commander Tempest Shadow in My Little Pony: The Movie.
History
Becoming the Ice Queen
Freya was the younger sister of Ravenna and Finn whom she left to new life with a man she loved and had a child. Although the man was promised to another, he send a letter to Freya calling her to the palace garden where he claimed they would be married in secret. However, it was a ruse to separate Freya from her child and when she left for the garden, the man killed his illegitimate daughter.
Realizing what happened, Freya rushed back to her chambers where the palace guards had already captured her lover. Overwhelmed by her anger and grief, Freya unleashed the magic hidden inside her and froze the man where he stood, killing him when he fell to the ground and shattered. After the death of her baby she gained the power to summon ice upon rage. Freya then left her family to conquer a kingdom for herself, planning to raise an army as she was prevented from raising a child. Her man sacked the villages and her subjects feared her. With her magic, Freya turned the farmlands of the north into a frozen waste, reigning from an ice fortress. She also send her men to capture children who she intended to turn into her personal huntsmen.
Clash with Eric
When children from a raided village are brought before her, she addresses them and tells them that they are lucky to be with her. When one of the children reveals that he misses his mother, Freya grabs him by the chin and covers it in frost burn, claiming that in her kingdom there is only one law - do not love. She then turns to the other children, exclaiming that she has freed them of the weakness of love by taking them from their homes, and that she demands their loyalty in return. The children are then brought outside where they are trained to become her elite huntsmen. Freya supervises their training by use of her magic, seeing the potential in the children Eric and Sara.
Freya separates Eric from Sara
Eventually, Freya sent her army against the other kingdoms in the North. Her huntsmen, now grown up, are victorious.
Through use of her magic, Freya finds out that Eric and Sara are having an affair. Seeing this as a personal betrayal, she confronts the two as they are about to flee her palace. She gives the two the chance to flee if they are able to defeat the rest of the huntsmen from their village. Although they succeed, Freya then seperates the two through an ice wall she creates and, unbeknownst to them, uses magic to show both images through the ice to torture them physically. Eric sees Sara stabbed by another huntsman and Sara sees Eric running of and abandoning her. Both believe the things they see to be true. Another huntsman then knocks out Eric and Freya orders her guards to take the body out of her sight. Sara is imprisoned in Freya's dungeon. Although Eric is thrown into an icy river, he survives. Seven years later, he has assisted Snow White in killing Ravenna.
Return of Ravenna
When the Magic Mirror is stolen, envoys from Snow White employ Eric to return it. Through her ice owl spies, Freya finds out about it. Although Eric sees and destroys the owl, Freya is now aware of the missing mirror and plans to obtain it to use its power to 'free' every child in the world and turn them all into huntsmen. She sends her huntsmen out to retrieve it.
Freya arrives to claim the mirror
After Eric and his group have found the mirror, they are approached by the complete host of Freya's huntsmen as well as Ravenna herself who arrives riding on a wolf-like creature. She reveals that Sara only joined Eric again because she ordered so, and that Sara has laid waste to kingdoms on her order. Freya then freezes two of the dwarfs who joined in with Eric. Freya's men take the mirror and the two frozen dwarfs and Freya orders Sara to finish of Eric. Sara shoots an arrow into Eric's chest but deliberately doesn't hit the heart, allowing Eric to survive. She and her army then return to the north. Back in her fortress, she orders the dwarves brought to the gallery and the mirror brought to the sanctum.
With the mirror, Freya successfully revives Ravenna. Ravenna tells her that with Freya's army, she will reclaim Snow White's kingdom. Ravenna takes control over Freya's huntsmen, angering her deeply. Ravenna nonetheless gives new orders to the huntsmen, calling it a far superior tactic. She also reminds Freya of what she owed her and tells her not to question Ravenna's superiority.
Freya then addresses her huntsmen, preparing her for the war to come. However, despite her usual self she seems uncertain. During her speech, Eric, who has infiltrated her fortress, shoots a crossbow bolt at her. The bolt is caught by Ravenna. Sara then attempts to slay Freya but is stopped by Freya's magic. By reminding Freya of her law against love in front of all her huntsmen, Ravenna forces Freya to sentence Eric and Sara to death. The two are forced to kneel before Freya but the huntsmen turn on Freya instead of executing Eric.
Freya is mortally wounded by Ravenna.
The huntsmen are forced to fight against Ravenna, who kills Freya's men without a second thought. To protect her people, Freya creates an ice wall and separates Ravenna from her men. Ravenna asks whether Freya has lost her mind, as she owes Ravenna who drained her from her weakness. From this, Freya realizes that Ravenna was the one who killed her daughter. As Ravenna is still a part of the mirror, Freya forces her to tell the truth and is told that Freya's daughter was bound to become the most beautiful woman. Ravenna uses her magic to manipulate Freya's lover into killing the baby.
Freya and Ravenna then attack each other but Freya is overpowered. Ravenna fights Sara and Eric, giving Freya the chance to approach her from behind. Freya grabs her sister and embraces her, causing Ravenna to slowly freeze, but Ravenna impales Freya with her dark magic. As Freya falls to the ground, Ravenna berates her sister for wasting the magic Ravenna unleashes in her by killing her daughter. Ravenna then fights against Eric. Seeing this, Freya uses her ice magic on the mirror, causing it to freeze. Eric then shatters the mirror, killing Ravenna. After witnessing this, Freya turns on the ground, seeing how Eric and Sara embrace each other. After telling both that they are lucky to feel such strong love, Freya dies. With her death, the frozen people from her gallery are released.
Physical Appearance
Freya originally had brown hair and grey eyes (unlike her siblings, who both had blonde hair), but after her ice powers are awoken, her hair turns silvery white, her eyes become light blue and her skin turns pale. Freya often wears elaborate gowns, coloured pale blue, white, and silver, that resemble metal or ice, projecting a cold and regal appearance and reflecting her title of 'Ice Queen'. She often wears a silver headdress in place of a crown, resembling an owl's feathers. Freya appears to be a beautiful, kind looking woman as compared to Ravenna's alluring appearance.
Relationships
Ravenna
Freya had a complicated relationship with her older sister. Ravenna presumably took care of Freya after they were orphaned and forced into poverty. In return, Freya loved Ravenna and was very loyal to her and her cause, serving as her companion and ally as Ravenna conquered various kingdoms. Despite her seeming lack of magical powers, Freya was not jealous of her sister's abilities and wholeheartedly supported her in everything she did. Unfortunately, the relationship soured, mostly due to the actions of Ravenna. Freya seemed upset that Ravenna did not approve of her relationship with the Duke of Blackwood and her pregnancy, disagreeing with her sister's belief that the Duke would betray her. Freya didn't let this minor argument affect their relationship - however, Ravenna later plotted to murder Freya's baby daughter, due to a prophecy stating that the child would grow to become beautiful than Ravenna and therefore pose a threat to her. Freya remained unaware for many years that Ravenna was actually responsible for her daughter's death, though her grief over her loss caused her to flee the kingdom and distance herself from Ravenna.
After inadvertently resurrecting Ravenna, Freya seemed interested in helping her sister invade Tabor and get revenge for the defeat of Ravenna. However, she became uncomfortable and distant from Ravenna, due to her elder sister undermining her powers and authority. Eventually, Freya became disillusioned with Ravenna, actively stopping her from killing her Huntsmen after they turned against her. When Ravenna accused Freya of being weak and claimed Freya owed her abilities to her, Freya became increasingly suspicious. After forcing Ravenna to reveal the truth - that she was the one killed her daughter and was, by extent, responsible for her lover's death - Freya's faith in Ravenna was completely shattered. Any love Freya had was replaced by disgust and anger and she turned against her sister, ultimately sacrificing her own life to help defeat Ravenna. However, when attempting to freeze Ravenna, Freya seemed somewhat remorseful and embraced her, implying that, in spite of Ravenna's actions, Freya still retained some affection for her sister.
The Duke of Blackwood
Freya was in love with the Duke and had an affair with him, despite the fact his family would not approve and he was already engaged. Because of this, Freya initially kept their relationship a secret. Freya was overjoyed when she learned she was pregnant with the Duke's child and had hopes that the Duke would defy tradition to be with her and their baby, in spite of her sister's doubts. When Freya discovered the Duke had apparently killed their child, she was heartbroken and believed he'd betrayed her. In her rage and grief, Freya unleashed her ice powers, which struck her lover and killed him. Because of the Duke's perceived betrayal of her, Freya hardened her heart against love, even forbidding her Huntsmen from falling in love on pain of death. It is likely that Freya's antagonistic feelings towards the Duke vanished after it was revealed that Ravenna had enchanted him to kill their daughter and that he was not truly to blame.
Freya's Daughter
Freya adored her daughter from the moment she knew of her existence. She rarely left her daughter's side after she was born and loved nothing more than to cradle her in her arms. Freya was so stricken with grief when her daughter's father seemingly killed her, it unlocked her previously dormant ice powers. Partly because of the loss of her daughter, Freya swore to harden herself to love. However, towards the end of the film, after discovering the truth behind her daughter's death, Freya broke down in tears over it for the first time in years. It also prompted her to turn on Ravenna due to her being being responsible for the baby's death (and by extent, the death of her lover, the Duke). In her dying moments, Freya had a vision of her younger self with her daughter and seemed truly happy for the first time since the tragedy, showing clearly how deeply she loved her daughter.
Eric
Freya was known to favour Eric, mainly because he was one of her most formidable warriors. Eric later conceded to a young girl that Freya could be "a wee bit grumpy" but was otherwise reasonable enough. He did not respect her law however, and she resented him for defying her. Eric did not hesitate in trying to stop her plan, nor did she hesitate to in having him killed. But in the end they allied against their common foe, Ravenna, and Freya somewhat respected Eric before she died. She also seemed happy that he had found love with Sara, saying they were "lucky".
Sara
Likewise with Eric, Freya favoured Sara as one of her greatest warriors. In fact when they broke her law, Freya opted to spare Sara out of the two, intending to break her and harden her. But Sara's love for Eric caused her to betray Freya a second time, and Freya was more horrified by this than the loss of Eric. Nonetheless she was hesitant to order their deaths when urged to do so by Ravenna and ultimately allied with Sara to fight Ravenna. In her dying moments, Freya commented that Sara and Eric were "So lucky" as they still had each other, implying she forgave Sara for her betrayal and was happy for her.
Finn
Freya was Finn's sister. They were never seen interacting together, but it can be assumed they loved each other (although Finn did not appear to have joined Ravenna and Freya when Freya was Ravenna's companion, perhaps suggesting they had an estranged relationship). One could assume that part of Freya's motivation for supporting Ravenna in invading Tabor was to avenge Finn's death.
Powers and Abilities
Though she came into her magic late, Freya still proved herself to be a powerful and dangerous sorceress, very much like her older sister, Ravenna.
- Cryokinesis: Freya's primary talent was the elemental ability to generate and manipulate ice, frost, snow, and cold temperatures. Examples of other abilities she derived from this province are:
- Cryokinetic Illusions: Freya had the ability to cast illusions to make others see and hear what she desired them to. For instance, she made Eric believe that Sara was killed by showing him a vision of her dying through the ice-wall she had conjured to separate them. She did the same thing to Sara, letting her believe that Eric had abandoned her by showing her a vision of him running away.
- Cryokinetic Astral-Projection: Freya had the ability to project her consciousness into an astral-form of a white owl outside her physical body. She accessed this ability by putting on an ice eye-mask shaped like owl feathers, and uses her astral-form mainly to spy on people.
- Cryokinetic Blast: Freya had the ability to release ice, snow, and cold on a specific target area, which serves as one of her primary means of defense and offense. For instance, when her powers were unleashed for the very first time, she killed the Duke of Blackwood by unleashing a powerful wave of cryokinetic energy that froze his entire being, and subsequently shattering it. Later on, she froze Sara's arm when she attempted to kill her.
- Cryokinetic Transmutation: Freya had the ability to transform matter and objects, including living beings, into ice. In fact, as the Ice Queen of the North, she was infamous for transforming her victims into ice statues. During the final battle against Ravenna, Freya attempted to freeze her sister into becoming an ice statue and, though she was unsuccessful, Ravenna was still briefly distracted and somewhat weakened.
- Cryokinetic Construction: Freya had the ability to create objects out of ice, such as walls, slides, platforms, and shields. However, this ability appeared to require her to first accumulate the necessary strength for it, as demonstrated by the instance where she raised an ice-wall to separate Eric and Sara. In a state of extreme emotion (such as anger), she was able to conjure with ease, as seen by how she raised an immense ice-wall to block Ravenna's onslaught against her Huntsmen.
- Immunity to Low Temperatures: Freya had the ability to be immune or invulnerable to cold. Though she often wore gowns that exposed her skin in her frozen kingdom, she suffered no ill effects from the extremely low temperatures, and she was also not visibly affected by her magical generation of ice and cold.
- Knowledge of the Magic Mirror: Freya was shown to have an extensive, thorough knowledge of the Magic Mirror. She once said the Mirror would enhance her powers to greater proportions, implying that she knew well how to utilise it to her best advantage. Later on, she showed that she was able to read the writings - which, when coupled with the legendary question of who the fairest one was, functioned as a resurrection spell - engraved around the Mirror. Through the Mirror, she was even able to exert a level of control over Ravenna, given how Ravenna was actually bound to answer her since she was the one who had summoned her from the Mirror. During the final battle against Ravenna, Freya was the one who froze the Mirror so it could be properly destroyed by Eric's axe, which shows her knowledge of it being her sister's one true weakness.
- Resurrection (possibly): Freya was shown using the Magic Mirror to bring her older sister, Ravenna, back to life. However, it was never confirmed as to whether she truly possessed the power of resurrection itself, for it is unknown as to whether or not she could have successfully accomplished Ravenna's resurrection if Ravenna's spirit had not possessed the Mirror to begin with. It should also be noted that Freya herself was shocked by how Ravenna came back to life, as if she had not been expecting it at all, and that Ravenna (a far more experienced and knowledgeable sorceress) herself did not possess the power of resurrection.
- Immortality (possibly): Though it was also never confirmed, it is possible that Freya is immortal, with youth and beauty that are preserved through subconscious magic. This theory is plausible, given how Ravenna preserved her own youth and beauty through magical means despite having lived many lifetimes, and that Freya - who did not appear to possess any magical powers before her daughter died - had served as her sister's companion for those numerous lifetimes, and yet had never aged beyond her prime.
Spells
Spell to Resurrect Ravenna:
The age can be wicked to those who walk alone
When I look into the Mirror, I see myself as I might become
Mirror, mirror, on the wall
Who is the fairest of them all?
Gallery
Trivia
- This was Emily Blunt's first antagonist role.
- Though Ravenna served as the main antagonist, Freya served as The Heavy because it was her quest to resurrect Ravenna that drove the plot, which makes Ravenna the Big Bad and the one behind the plot.
- Freya's power of cryokinesis was apparently triggered after her infant daughter was killed. It caused her hair to turn completely white, her heart to harden when it came to matters of love, and appeared to be wholly dependent on her emotional state.
- In Norse mythology, Freya (Freyja) is the Goddess of Love, Beauty, Gold, and Sorcery. This is an irony, as the Freya of the film is very different: though she is a beautiful and powerful sorceress, she loathed love, and only realised her error at the very end.
- Both Freya and Ravenna were associated with birds: Freya's bird is the owl, while Ravenna's bird is the raven.
- It is likely that Freya was based on the Snow Queen from Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale: in the story, the Snow Queen (a supernatural being with power over ice and snow) abducts a young boy with a splinter of ice in his heart, which is similar to how Freya kidnaps children to be her Huntsmen.
- Freya also shares some similarities with the White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: both are powerful sorceresses with the ability of cryokinesis, ruled over kingdoms of perpetual winter, lived in ice-palaces, and had a habit of transforming their enemies into statues and displaying them in a courtyard.